


At the bottom of the canal

by ForgiveTheButchersKnife



Category: Slender Man Mythos, Tribe Twelve
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-10-26 13:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17746733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgiveTheButchersKnife/pseuds/ForgiveTheButchersKnife
Summary: A cheap house in Floridian suburbs at a surprisingly low price? Too good to be true but you should have caught on long before buying. Now that you're here, just so you know , if you cannot rest in your own bed during the night, the bottom of the canal is just as fine.





	1. Crickets are louder than screaming

It's 3:45 AM and you have been staring pensively at the ceiling for a few hours now. Your neighbor has polluted your resting hours with blood curdling screams all night. Can you believe that one man single-handedly lowered the prices of all the houses in the neighborhood with his late night wailing sessions?

You're somewhat thankful since you were able to buy yourself a house at half the normal price but your lack of sleep and the drowsiness of waking up feeling sleep deprived are doing numbers on your gratitude. What is he even screaming about? Why is he screaming? No one seems to question this situation but honestly... the neighbors were reclusive and scattered, mostly old and cranky.  
To think of it. You and your screaming neighbor are the only ones in this row of houses. Is your neighbor that bad that he made all other neighbors leave?  
The estate agent never told a motive for the lack of neighbors but y'know... Do estate agents ever say anything? You could be living in a murder house right for all you know! But you wouldn't risk yourself with a Ouija board around here...

"God, he's screaming so loud now..." You mumble while shifting in your bed. If only you bought those ear buds you saw at CVS a few days ago... If only...

Your neighbor's screaming suddenly ceased which was weird. He usually does that untill sun rise. No, actually he screams until it's very well-lit outside , never in the dark and never this suddenly. It usually stops after a few more sporadic shrieks as the sun rises. "Let's just give him time." You think. And you gave him time , you gave him an hour. An hour of absolute silence.  
"Why is he so quiet?"  
You could hear crickets, the occasional seagull flying by your open window, a mosquito flying around your bedroom and the distant buzzing of the air conditioning. House sounds you grew unfamiliar with. You don't blame yourself for the sudden shiver down your spin that was brought by sudden fear, you blame Noah, your neighbor. He and his disturbing customs made you uncomfortable in your own home. Oh, how you wish he'd go away...  
Or do you? Being alone in your home, among empty houses, in a neighborhood in which people are used to screaming in the middle of the night... a concept that made the darkness in your room all more oppressing.  
Anxiety dripped down your legs and arms, making them freezing cold in the middle of Floridian summer. Your stomach was caving in and you lungs refused to let in anymore air. Something was terribly wrong...

"Why is he so quiet? Where did he go? Why isn't he making any noise?" You frantically ask yourself as you turn on the lights. In a matter of moments , you nearly throw yourself at you bedroom window with a flashlight.  
The flashlight's beam traversed Noah's entire front yard but it froze along with your whole left arm when it landed over his door. It was wide open, darkness looming from inside, almost staring back at you.

"Where is he? Where?!" You whisper. Your flashlight found nothing despite your joint efforts. Nothing around the house. Nothing in the windows.

You close your eyes and pray for the best as you step away from the window.  
"What if..." NO! Stop it! Don't think of things like that!  
"What IF..." No, no ,no ,no. It's not. SHUT UP. He's fine probably. No one is in his house. He probably left it open.

No one is in his house... but him, alone, in the dark, vulnerable , fragile, breakable. Just as you are.

The what if's finally got to you but you want to prove them wrong. There is nothing there. And you are going to show your stupid chemical imbalance that. You want to assert dominance over your own anxieties. To show them how wrong they are.

Despite all of your horror movies experience, you still decide to walk outside in the middle of the night with a flashlight.

"C'mon. You can do it... It's only a few feet away."

Noah's house was shrouded in darkness. If you didn't knew better you would have told yourself it's abandoned.  
The staring contest that you held against the wide open door to your neighbor's home was worthy of a record book. Not a muscle in your whole body moved as you eyes fixated on the pitch black on the strange home. It took you well over a minute to make the first step towards the front door and a few deep breaths for the first steps into Noah's home.  
Horror movies did not teach you anything after all.

The inside of the house was messy , you can't tell if it was because of a break in or if your neighbor was just a slob but you guessed it was a mix of both.

Your flashlight illuminated and guided you around his home, helping you figure out bits and pieces about Noah. You saw pictures of him and his family in hallway. Some of were shattered across the hallway, some of them leaning gently against the wall , most of them still up. You finally had a face to a name, Noah's name. You have never met him before. Only heard him screams for a month every night and got some of his mail by mistake. That's all of the connections you had with him. You have never been interested in hanging around probably clinically insane people until now. Not that you want to spend more time than needed here either but just a check seems like a reasonable idea from a decent neighbour such as yourself. 

You flashlight had been handy and trustworthy so far but how you wish it wasn't as it's light reflected into long red smears right in the door frame of a bathroom. There was more red on the floor and walls inside the little washroom. The sink was definitely soaked in all shades of red and the stained towels around it made the view an eyesore.  
The thought seeing a dead body for the first time in your life was thrilling. So thrilling , in fact, that you couldn't really focus on anything else. You could say that your body was preparing for an upcoming shock. The anticipation of witnessing something terrifying is a starting point at confronting it.

You turn around, following drips , drops and spatters up the hallway into a bedroom. The blinds on the massive windows in this room combined with tonight's moonlight created long, dark shadows into the ground. Almost as looking out of a prison cell.  
The air in this room was so heavy and old and... metallic.

Just now you noticed that the smell of blood in the air was stronger here. Probably strongest in the house.  
If there is blood, there is a body. Where exactly is said bleeding body?  
Maybe look under the bed? No. That's stupid. Horror movie way of dying.  
Maybe behind the door? Stupid as well.

How about in the closet? The closet that stood ever so slightly cracked open right to your left. Figures. A good place to put a body. Your whole jaw clenched as you reach the door knob. A cold sweat now forming on your forehead. This is not how you wanted to meet your neighbor.  
You pull on the closet door slowly while trying to regulate your breath as your anxiety spiked again. 

You need a moment to comprehend what you see inside. You see a tangled , dark brown mess covering a two wide , terrified blood-shot eyes. The face cowered into a very bloodied white shirt , marching with a pair of very stained denim jeans.  
If it wasn't for how visibly the frame shook and how loud it screamed when you met gazes, you could have sworn it was a dead body.  
But based on how familiar the scream sounded, you knew that this was your neighbor, Noah Maxwell.


	2. Bars of a prison

You barely had time to process what you were seeing. Your presumably batshit insane neighbor swung at you. With what? Well, you're not really sure, you nearly dropped your flashlight in the process of stepping back and falling. 

"GET OUT!" Noah yelled at you. "GET THE FUCK OUT YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!" He swung at you again. 

You were nearly on you feet when you saw what he was clutching in hands. Well fuck, it's a knife. Your knees nearly gave away but the door frame held onto you as much as you held onto it.  
"No! Wait! I'm your neighbor! I'll leave!! I'll leave! I wanted to see if you were okay!" You stepped back, now shivering from head to toes. Damn it, if only you took that self-defense class... You could at least try to kick his ass now if he swings again but you might have to pay the low price of a full on stab. No, don't do it. It's bad business, not worth your money. Try bargaining 

"YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! GET OUT! OUT!" Noah quickly charged at you, yelling at the top of his lungs.  
Against your better judgement , you didn't run for the door. Instead you locked yourself in the bathroom in which you saw the blood filled sink. Outstanding choice making. In your defense, he's taller than you and knows this house better than you. You could have tripped on air in classic slasher fashion and Noah could have outrun you. You'd be better off trying to crawl out of a tiny window in one piece than trying to crawl on the floor towards the front door with an open gash in your back. You don't know what he's capable of and you honestly don't want to know. 

For a moment , you try to catch your breath but three loud BANGS startle you.  
"AY! GET OUT I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! YOU FUCKERS ALWAYS DO THAT!" Noah banged his fists on the door. 

 

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" You yell at him. Hoping that would work but you know how this kind of situations work.

"YOU LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU AND YOUR FREAKS!" He bangs his fists on the door again. 

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! I'M JUST THE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR!" As of now, you're experiencing an adrenaline crash. Your legs gave out from under you and you back hit the tiled wall behind you. While Noah kept mumbling and venting on the other side of the locked door, you just let yourself slide against the cold wall, slowly sitting down with your knees against your chest. All you wanted was to help. 

"Dude, I don't know , I just live next to you and I didn't knew what was with you!" The tiles of the bathroom floor were so, so cold. You hate it. You want home. You want in your soft bed. You want Noah to shut the fuck up. You want to sleep because you're tired. So tired. Your stomach hurts because of the stress and your head might start after it.

You wish you never moved here.

After a few minutes, Noah went silent. For good this time. Your tired eyes watched the door intently while the silence buzzed in your ears loudly. "God, for how long will I be here?" you question yourself. That's not for me to know, it's for you to decide and you decide that it might not be safe to make a run for it just now. You want to arrive home safely. 

Your eyes flashed open just a few hours later. You actually fell asleep you majestic beast, you. I mean , you awoke alive but that was a stupid move, even if you didn't make it willingly. And so you rose to your feet, your back now hurting since you sat down on the cold tiles. After a few careful steps across the bathroom , you arrived at the door and placed your ear against in to listen in. It was quiet , very quiet. Now was your time.  
You unlock the door hesitantly and slowly before tip toeing down the hallway to the front door. You caught a glimpse of your neighbor sleeping deeply on the couch in the living room. Maybe it was a good move to stay the night in the bathroom. If you were to take off during the night , he might have woken up from his light slumber.  
As soon as the door was open , you took off running to your home, locking the door as soon as you found yourself inside. 

The next hours were spent checking and locking every window in your home while carrying around a kitchen knife. You made sure to cover all your windows and pull the blinds over all of them.  
You sat in your living room , knife in hand, watching the sunlight slide across the floor. In a way , you felt like a prisoner in your own home. Going outside? No, no , no. What if he was outside with his knife and his psychotic screaming waiting to strike? You wouldn't dare. 

At 7 PM , a loud knock startled you. The voice speaking from the front door gave you shivers up your spine. "Hey! It's me from next door over! Is anyone there?" You heard Noah yell while banging his fist onto the wooden door.  
You quickly run to the front door, knife in hand and phone in the other. Ready to call the cops.  
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" You scream at him with your ear pressed against the front door. 

"Oh, so there IS someone next door." You hear him mumble. " Hey , ugh, so were you by... any chance in my home?" 

You frown and open the door abruptly. "Matter of fact. YEAH, I was. You also swung a fucking knife at him!" You scream. 

Noah sat there on your door step , now in clean clothes and eyes the size of plates. "Look, I... " 

"You what? Sorry that you nearly killed me or something ? " 

"I didn't knew I had a neighbor. I thought... " He shook his head and raised his shoulders , flinching a bit in the process. "I had some things break in the past couple of month and last night I got stabbed , okay? I thought you were one of them. It was all in self-defense, I swear!" 

You roll your eyes and sigh. "And the screaming ? You keep me up with yours screams every nigh, asshole! You got night terrors in yours shit and they make you scream every night ? Is that your all you gotta say? Do you want me to believe you? " You mockingly ask him. Much to your surprise he nodded. "I didn't knew I screaming so loud... I thought I was screaming only in my dreams..." he spoke , visibly embarrassed. 

"I'm sorry , I can explain. I'll prove it to you!" Noah pulled the his t-shirt over his left shoulder revealing a mass of bloody bandages. " I planned to go to the hospital but I ain't got the funds to do it. " Noah looked at you with big worried and irritated eyes. 

Against better judgement you invite him in.


End file.
